Not sure about the strategy of letting Karl Anthony Towns have not one, but TWO wide open corner threes to tie the game in the final seconds, but hey, look at us: 13-17, 6-4 in our last 10, and on a 3 game winning streak. Going into the holidays. Merry Christmas folks.
Link to Boxscore
Starters
32min 10pts (4-6 2-4 0-0) 5reb 5ast 0stl 0blk 3To
Barnes ( B ) -- surprisingly effective in the first half against the long Wolves frontline. Overpowered a couple of times by Wiggins in the post, but in general Wiggins did little. A few of his patented bad passes, but outweighed by the good passes as everybody moved the ball.
37min 32pts (13-24 3-6 3-5) 7reb 7ast 4stl 2blk 5To
Cousins ( A- ) -- there was an air of calm and smart play around Cuz for most of this night. He made the right shot decision, when the Wolves started TRIPLE teaming him (yes) he waited and picked it apart hitting open men. He was the saavy vet...who also drops 32 on you. But not strong enough on the glass, and some late mistakes for the "-".
21min 12pts (6-8 0-0 0-0) 4reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0To
Koufos ( B ) -- minutes were limited as we chose to go with Tolliver's spacing value at PF, but in the early going especially, Kosta did a great job of being "the other big", and moving to the rim for little dumpoffs and follows. Did let Towns overwhelm him on the glass however.
16min 7pts (2-4 1-3 2-3) 3reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0To
McLemore ( C+ ) -- at the start of both halves Ben came out moving well and playing with a purpose, but rather than it turning into one of "those games" for him, it just fizzled both times, and with LaVine going off for career numbers we needed Temple, stat.
20min 3pts (1-5 1-2 0-0) 1reb 6ast 0stl 0blk 0To
Collison ( D ) -- no idea what to say here. Continues to play a dead game, and I have no explanation for why.
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Bench
31min 17pts (6-9 5-7 0-0) 3reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Tolliver ( B+ ) -- I mean basically the old man at the park 3pt bomber here. Did nothing else, got creamed on the boards. But he was part of the defensive hustle that brought the Wolves to heel, and he had his best 3pt shooting night since preseason, with several of them at key junctures.
28min 15pts (5-11 2-3 3-4) 3reb 4ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Lawson ( B+ ) -- two or three weeks ago Lawson was the PG where we wondered what had happened to his game, and now here is is again providing the heady leadership and scrap, and winning all the crunchtime minutes in a Kings W. Teamed with Cuz to give us our late offense.
8min 2pts (1-3 0-0 0-0) 2reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Cauley-Stein ( C+ ) -- can't go any higher, but really Willie did not look bad in his first half minutes, and critically, he is starting to compete. looked like he knew what he wanted to do, just got beat several times.
26min 9pts (3-6 1-3 2-2) 6reb 4ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Temple ( B ) -- as it turned out LaVine was too hot to cool off through the mere application of a Temple, but he did make him work, and gradually as the game got near the end, Zach finally started missing the occasional shot. meanwhile Temple was playing the glue guy in all other ways. Didn't stop his target, but still played a good game.
23min 2pts (1-4 0-1 0-0) 0reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Afflalo ( D+ ) -- well, in some ways the Afflalo resurgence stopped here. Not able to get his offense going, and couldn't bully Wiggins. But he still felt like he was playing as pretty solid floorgame and giving an effort on D. This wasn't one of those dead, not ready to play outings. Just a bad night.
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